mic+mixer to windows system

I picked up a Shure sm57. I am now planning on getting an Alesis Usb multimix-8 to get some vocal recordings on my computer. I need to know is this a good choice without going crazy on my money, and will I need a preamp or anything else to get a good sounding recording to my harddrive? Thanks

ok... What is the quality difference between the usb and firewire mixer... Any information on the quality of this mixer compared to others of the price range? What level of quality can I expect from using this mixer with an sm57???

You don't need a separate preamp; any mixer with mic inputs and a USB or firewire output has preamps built in.

Either USB or firewire will work fine; as long as you're digitizing before you send it to the computer. (The audio inputs of every in-computer sound card I know of, without exception, are sucky.)

The port is a non-issue because the limitation is the mic. The SM57 is good as dynamic mics go, but any decent set of electronics will be an order of magnitude better. You have to have at least a Chinese-made studio condenser mic before it's worth worrying about minor issues in the rest of the system.

After the mic, the next most important factor is acoustically treating the room, and making sure fan noise from the computer doesn't get on the track.

Third most important factor: setting up the mixer controls for least noise. A microphone puts out a certain amount of hiss all by itself. In a properly designed system, all other noise sources should be so low that this microphone self-noise sets the noise floor limit.

I've always thought Alesis does good work for the money, but I looked up the multimix-8 specs and immediately ran into a red flag: noise specs are "not available." This may be a problem because so many people use condenser mics now. Condenser mics have hotter outputs than dynamic mics, and most have more self-noise, so mixer designers feel they don't need to pay attention to low noise as much as they used to. In your case, with a dynamic mic, that could mean trouble.

Shop further. There have to be other small mixers with specs good enough that their makers are willing to publish them. You might do better with a straight mixer and separate audio to USB converter.